Support Requests with Screencasts via Screenr

October 9, 2013

Heads up! This blog post hasn't been updated in over 2 years. CodePen is an ever changing place, so if this post references features, you're probably better off checking the docs. Get in touch with support if you have further questions.

UPDATE: We've removed this feature. While I personally really liked the feature, very few people used it directly and it was a bit expensive for what we got out of it. I suspect the Java requirement turned some people off from using it. We still love screencasts with support requests. Recordit is pretty sweet on Mac, but however you want to do it is great.

It's pretty fancy stuff! It's the business version of Screenr, which allows you to kind of "white label" the Screenr experience. Screenr allows you to take screencasts of areas of your screen right through the browser. It's amazingly fast for what it does not to mention tremendously useful. No more separate software and uploading and transcoding all all that business. It's all combined. It does require Java which not everyone loves of course, but for the awesomeness Screenr provides I'm happy to have that installed (it's easy and prompts you).

For us here at CodePen, it means that we can offer that Record Screencast button right on the support form. Nothing is better at demonstrating problems that actually seeing the exact problem as you see it. We highly encourage you to use it when submitting support tickets.

Just click the button, position the popup recording area over where you're seeing the bug and hit record. Demonstrate the bug, then hit stop. You'll see a window like this:

You don't need to be super detailed in there, you can save that for the support form.

Hit upload, and you'll then get a dialog like this when it's done:

There you can copy and paste that screencast URL into the support form. Pretty sweet!

You aren't required to submit a screencast (or screenshot) with every support request, but it is very helpful for us and might save you some typing! Or even if you do like doing screencasts, of course you're welcome to use whatever your tool of choice is.